Disclaimer, I do not own the movies, franchises, etc.
Dorothy awoke several hours later to find her uncle standing in the door way. He was smiling which was a good sign. She yawned and stretched, she looked around the room to see Toto waiting for her to waken. She smiled and picked him up, she then picked up the scepter.
"Dorothy, I'm glad you're awake, Ellie and Aislynn are waiting for you at the park in the middle of town" Uncle Henry said walking over.
Toto barked happily, he definitely wanted to see their friends, and he definitely wanted to go to the park.
"I knew he'd be happy to hear that." Uncle Henry said chuckling.
Dorothy giggled and got up, sliding into her flats and grabbing the scepter. She then walked past her uncle followed by Toto at her heels. When she got out of the hospital she walked in the direction of the park, she had been there for several picnics and she played with Toto there extremely often. It was just a normal park, with a garden, a large field, lots of shady trees, and even several donated benches. She liked it there because it was calm, nice, and there tended to be a lot of people there to chat with. After about twenty minutes of walking she eventually found herself being pulled into a crushing embrace by Ellie and Aislynn.
"Hello Aislynn, morning Ellie" Dorothy said giggling and returning the embrace.
"Dorothy, Aislynn had a nightmare about the jester." Ellie said.
"Did you tell Glinda?" Dorothy asked concerned.
"She said there wasn't anything she could do, Oz is in trouble, and it's losing its magic somehow." Ellie said quite concerned.
"What!?" Dorothy asked dropping the scepter, causing it to flash with a blinding white light.
Dorothy blinked and shook her head a few times while both Aislynn and Ellie rubbed their eyes. Soon they had recovered from being in a daze, they all chuckled at this, and Dorothy picked up scepter and dusted off the glass orb. She looked around to make sure no one had noticed. Luckily they seemed to be alone in the park at the time being. They all sighed in relief.
"That was a close call, what if someone had seen?" Ellie asked now sounding concerned.
"I don't know about you two but I would have hid in that tree over there." Aislynn said giggling.
They all laughed at this for a minute, then they all walked over to one of the benches and sat down on it. Toto barked a few times as if hoping one of them would produce a ball for him to fetch. Ellie chuckled and rummaged through her pockets, she soon produced the usual red ball that she tended to play with when she got bored. She then took it and threw it, they all laughed as Toto ran after it. It was then Dorothy noticed Aislynn looking strangely at something.
"Aislynn? What's wrong?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"Am I the only who thinks that that man with the brown top hat over there is spying on us over his paper?" she asked pointing at a bench across the park.
There was indeed a man, and he was indeed wearing a brown colored top hat, and he did indeed seem to be glaring at them from over the folded portion of it. Dorothy waved at him but received no response, if this man was indeed spying on them, 'why?' 'And who for?' Were the main questions that came to her mind as questions she was asking herself? Dorothy looked at Ellie who looked in the direction and then nodded at Dorothy. Toto then returned with the ball.
"I think he is spying on us." Dorothy said concerned.
They looked back at the man, who now got up and folded up his paper. He then turned and walked away from the park. None of them could catch a glimpse of his face. They sat there in silence for a minute before Dorothy noticed that the scepter was beginning to glow brightly. Ellie sighed and picked up Toto. She then grabbed aislynn's hand and Dorothy felt herself lurch forward. She began to feel dizzy and sick after a few seconds of this. Watching the colors whiz by her she wondered what Glinda wanted. She then felt herself make contact with ground and she fell forward into the embrace of the scarecrow.
"Whoa, steady on kiddo, relax." He said.
Dorothy coughed and gasped, she then managed to regain her composure and pulled out of the scarecrow's grasp, and then she turned in the direction of Glinda.
"Is there any way to get me here that won't make me feel like I want to vomit?" She asked curiously.
"Outside of the rainbow mover and another tornado, afraid not." She said.
"Well, the rainbow mover will remain not an option, mostly because I don't think the citizens of Kansas would enjoy seeing a rainbow suck up a young girl." Aislynn said giggling.
"Quite right, sorry Glinda." Dorothy said.
"It's okay my dear child, right now we have bigger problems." Glinda said in a concerning tone.
"Besides the fact that Oz is using it's magic?" Dorothy asked.
"Well, no but, well look." Glinda said moving out of the way to show her the crystal ball.
Dorothy gasped at what she saw. It showed the munchkin city, but it was completely grey, devoid of any color for what looked like miles. The sky was still blue, that hadn't changed much. It made her feel upset to see it in such a state.
"What of the citizen?" Dorothy asked curiously
"Any of them that managed to make it out are okay, those who didn't are pretty much remain there frozen, not stone, just frozen, almost as if in time and space." She said sadly.
"The jester has gone too far." Dorothy said.
"Funny, am I hearing an echo?" came the voice of the china princess.
"Oh, china princess, you said the same thing?" Dorothy asked in response.
"Yes, about an hour or two ago." The princess said walking over to Dorothy.
"That's nice, what are we going to do about it?" she asked
"There isn't anything we can do, my magic can't affect it, and I don't even think I can go there without being affected." Glinda said sadly.
"Sis?" Ellie asked.
"Yes Ellie?" Glinda asked.
"Why would the jester want to do this?" she asked.
"It's part of his quote unquote 'master plan'." Dorothy said
"What makes you say that?" Ellie asked.
"Remember that one time he captured me?" she asked.
"Yes, why?" Ellie responded.
"He told me everything that happened would be part of his master plan." she replied.
"What about your aunt? There's no way, not even with magic, that could cause him to make a specific piece of something fall without bringing down the entire remainder of the house." Came the voice of Alison who was walking in with her nose in her book.
"Well that too." Glinda remarked.
"Well that definitely puts my mind at ease." Aislynn said sarcastically.
They all laughed at this for a minute before Dorothy walked over to the door of the room.
"Um which way is my room from here?" she asked
The scarecrow pulled a key out from his coat pocket and tossed it to.
"Take a left at the end of the hallway." He said.
Dorothy caught the key and nodded.
"Thanks, and Glinda?" Dorothy asked.
"Yes dear?" she responded
"Keep an eye out for the jester, who knows when he may think his game is ready for him to show up." Dorothy said.
Glinda nodded, and Dorothy turned to walk out. She then felt herself being hugged tightly from behind. She turned to see Ellie.
"Keep yourself safe." She whispered.
Dorothy nodded and she felt herself being released. She then walked out of the room with Toto following closely at her heels. She followed the scarecrow's instructions and found herself not far from her room. She recognized the area as the one she had been led through to get to her room during the time of the china princess's wedding. Retracing her steps from there was relatively easy, and after about five minutes of wandering she eventually found herself at her bedroom door. Unlocking it she opened the door and set the scepter down against the wall next to her. She then walked over to the bed and plopped down on it. Sliding off the flats she sighed and lay down.
"Oh Toto, what are we going to do?" Dorothy asked.
Toto barked in a confused tone as if to say 'Why are you asking me?'
"Right, you're a dog, the best you can really do is bite the jester on the ankle." Dorothy said sighing again.
"You know kiddo, you have enough ingenuity to think of something." Came the voice of the scarecrow.
Dorothy sat up and looked at the doorway. The scarecrow was standing in the doorway with Aislynn at his side. Aislynn smiled and ran over to the bed stood at the bedpost.
"He's right you know, you do have a lot of ingenuity." Aislynn said giggling.
"I know ace but this is the jester we're up against, not some bully from down the street." Dorothy said pushing herself into a sitting position.
"So? According to your friends you've vanquished evil before." Aislynn said smiling.
"Yes, and once I got myself turned to stone, so it's not always a situation I win in." Dorothy said.
"But you have more victories than defeats don't you?" Aislynn asked.
Dorothy sighed and got up, she then walked over to Aislynn and knelt down so she could be at eye level with her.
"Ace, most of the time my victories were by accident, like melting the witch of the west, or causing the jester's downfall the first time." Dorothy said sighing.
"Accident or not accident, you still have victories." Aislynn said hugging her.
"Fair enough ace, hey why don't you go with the scarecrow to the library?" Dorothy asked chuckling a bit.
"Because, the scarecrow, Ellie and I were thinking and because you are always doing nice things for others, that we could do something nice for you." Aislynn said smiling.
"Ace, Scarecrow, you guys know you don't have to do stuff for me." Dorothy said giggling.
"We know, we just want to." Came the voice of Ellie from behind the scarecrow.
"Ellie." Dorothy said giggling.
Ellie giggled as well and walked around the scarecrow. Coming into the room she walked over to Dorothy. She then went through one of her pockets and pulled out what looked like the little pocket calendar her aunt sometimes carried with her. Ellie flipped through the pages and handed it to Dorothy. She looked at the page and gasped. It showed that her birthday was only two days away.
"Wow, I really lost track of the days." Dorothy said taking her hand and pushing back her hair.
"I know, your uncle gave me this before he went to the hospital and told you to come find us at the park." Ellie said chuckling a bit.
Aislynn then pulled away from Dorothy's grasp and walked over to the scarecrow. Ellie then followed her.
"Dorothy, why don't you go and do some more exploring?" the scarecrow asked.
"Because I really don't like getting lost and my map is at home." Dorothy said sighing.
"So? That's what exploring can be all about, having fun, getting lost, finding something new." He replied going through his pockets and then producing a large ring of keys.
"Where'd you get that?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"I found them in the chambers, I know that some of these keys go to rooms like the library, or the kitchens, but I don't know what all of them do, why don't you figure it out?" the scarecrow asked tossing her the keys.
Dorothy caught them, the ring was pretty heavy with keys, and a lot of them looked really old but still had a bit of a shine to them. She took the keys and put them in her dress pocket. Toto looked at her curiously.
"Well Toto, looks like we're going to get to see more of the city." Dorothy said smiling.
"Atta girl, have fun." The scarecrow said walking off, the girls following closely behind.
Dorothy smiled and got up, she then slid into her flats and walked over to the door. Grabbing the scepter she walked out of the room. Not bothering to shut and lock it this time, not that it ever really seemed to stop people from getting in there and leaving her notes. As she walked along she eventually found herself in the hallway that she had explored and started the chess game with the jester. She knew there were rooms here she hadn't seen yet. As she walked along she went to the first door that she know she hadn't gone through. She tried the door knob, but unlike the first few doors she had been through when she went there last, it was locked. Dorothy sighed and leaned the scepter against the wall.
"So, the first locked door Toto, I wonder which key opens it?" she asked him curiously.
He looked at her for a minute and made a set of movements that looked like he was shrugging. Dorothy giggled at this and took out the ring of keys. She then went through the process of trying each key one by one. After about five or six keys into the ring she found one that fit. It was a brass key with a small emerald set at the top. As she unlocked the door and opened it, she was met with a room that was rather dusty and full of cobwebs. As Dorothy picked up the scepter and walked in she immediately sneezed.
"Wow, it is really dusty in here." She said to herself sniffing a bit.
Toto barked in agreement, and then sneezed as well. But this didn't stop her from walking farther into the room. As she did she noticed that the room was relatively empty, save for a painting of the emerald city at the far end of the room. Dorothy shrugged this off, turned around, and walked out of the room. Shutting the door behind her she looked down at Toto who was trying to get a cobweb out of his fur. She chuckled at this and then knelt down to help him. After this was accomplished Dorothy stood up and walked over to another door. Trying the knob she was surprised to find this one unlocked. As she pushed the door open and walked in she noticed there was an empty chessboard in the middle of the room. She immediately ran out of the room and shut the door.
"Okay Toto, ground rule, stay away from chess boards unless one of our friends offers us a game." Dorothy said looking down at her dog.
He barked and nodded. This made Dorothy giggle a bit, but then she heard her stomach growl.
"Come on Toto lets go back, I could use come food." Dorothy said smiling.
Toto barked in agreement, he was used to having breakfast as a certain time. They both walked back towards the main part of the castle. Dorothy smiled as they walked along, she knew there were many unexplored rooms in the city, and she would try to find them all. After a few minutes of walking she found herself pulled into a crushing embrace, not by Ellie, or Aislynn but by Alyssa. She returned the embrace and looked up at her.
"Dorothy, how you been?" she asked.
"I'm fine Alyssa, what's with the hug?" Dorothy asked curiously.
"I'm just glad you're alright, we heard what happened." Alyssa said smiling warmly.
"Thanks Alyssa, yea I'm fine, I was just heading to the kitchens, I'm a little hungry." Dorothy said.
Toto barked in agreement, Alyssa giggled and stepped to the side allowing Dorothy to pass. Dorothy then found herself in front of the kitchen. As she walked in she saw that it was relatively empty but Brianna was there doing some quick cooking by the looks of it. Dorothy smiled as she turned to face her.
"Oh, hello Dorothy, need anything?" Brianna asked.
"Just something to eat." Dorothy said, Toto barked in agreement.
"Oh, well, we are currently restocking the kitchens at the moment, those who managed to escape the munchkin city have been coming here, and we've been supplying them." Brianna said.
"That's okay, if you have any food for Toto that's alright, I'll just have a piece of fruit or something." Dorothy said.
Brianna quickly turned around a picked up and apple. Tossing it to Dorothy, who caught it. She then walked over to a nearby cabinet and pulled out a bag of dog treats. She took one out and tossed at Toto who ran, jumped and caught it. Dorothy and Brianna both giggled at this for a moment. She then took a bite from the apple. Shortly after however Ellie came up behind her.
"Dorothy, it's time to return, according to your uncle you are needed at the sheriff's office." Ellie said in a worried tone.
"You should go Dorothy." Brianna said.
Dorothy nodded, and followed Ellie. Toto was following closely at their heels. She led them to the library where they found Aislynn, Glinda and the Scarecrow waiting for her.
"I wonder what the sheriff wants?" Dorothy asked herself.
"Probably something important" Ellie said.
Dorothy nodded and the scepter began to glow brightly. She felt herself lurch forward, the colors whizzing by her face. She began to feel dizzy and sick when she felt her feet hit the ground. She fell forward into the sheriff's arm. She then found herself in a chair panting and heaving for breath.
"Dorothy, there's something we need to discuss." He said in a serious tone